Daily 5?!

So over the past two weeks I attended several different teacher trainings in preparation of my district's switch to Common Core next year. While at these trainings, I really started to get excited/nervous about the new school year. I just cannot believe how quickly summer seems to be going by. I had so much to get done that I haven't seemed to accomplish yet and now I have even more to add onto the list....eek!
 
I just found out at these trainings that our district is moving us towards using Daily 5 in our literacy block for center time. I have seen such awesome ideas all over blogs and Pinterest that I haven't pinned or followed to closely since I didn't realize that we were going to be implementing it! I am now on a mad dash to find as much information and resources as possible. Of course my first step was to try to hunt down the book, after going to and calling several bookstores I think I finally have a lead! Of course I could have ordered it online, but I am rather impatient and "I want it now!" (Think Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory...) 

So of course tonight, I logged onto Pinterest and started scrolling through blogs and as usual my quick 10 minute peek has turned into an hour plus spent looking over all the wonderful ideas. Does anyone have any wonderful suggestions/ideas about implementing it? I am super excited and can't wait to continue my search for my help and resources tomorrow.

High Frequency Words and Back to School sales!!

So this morning as soon as I woke up, my first thought was "I wonder if Target has any school supplies on sale?" I was walking through the store last week (about 4 different times) and noticed that they were starting to put out the school supply area. Now I will quickly admit that I am a huge dork about school supplies and was very excited to see this section! So once I actually woke up I decided to browse the Target ad and was even more excited to see that they are starting to put school supplies on sale this week! I can't wait to go shopping later this week...

So with the knowledge that I have an exciting school supply shopping trip that I will go on later this week, I decided that I should probably get something checked off my summer to do list. I spent the past several hours creating cards for the high frequency words for each unit in our reading series. This was something that a fellow teacher and I had discussed doing and I am pretty excited about actually having accomplished it. I always seem to be scrambling to have the cards ready for each week and now I have them all ready for the year. How is everyone else's summer to do list coming along? I have more to do for sure, but that is one check mark that I am happy to say I can put on my list now. 

Have a great week everyone!

Summer Vacation!

So I officially finished packing and cleaning my classroom today. I didn't realize how much teaching stuff I have actually accumulated in just three years! It doesn't help that I am definitely a pack-rat (I get it from my mom.) Lucky for me I have a fabulous first grade team and we all pitched in to help each other finish packing and cleaning. I am super excited to finally be on summer vacation, but I have to admit I am already thinking about how much I would like to accomplish over the summer. My goals for summer are to organize my books and supplies into monthly tubs, still trying to figure out exactly how to do that, but I am leaning more and more towards using binders and carts...opinions? What works for you? I also want to get on Teachers Pay Teachers and get centers organized for next year. I feel like if I can get those things done then I will feel more prepared for next school year. What is anyone else doing to prep over the summer?

Summeritis

So is it just me or does anyone else have summeritis? I can feel summer...it is so close, only 7 school days away for me now, but it just seems like these last few weeks are dragging along. I love all the energy the kids have for summer, I just wish they could bundle some of it up into energy focused on their school work! I must say looking at Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers I am impressed with how many teachers have already started planning for next school year, I wish I could be that proactive right now, I am just drained out. I figure I'll give myself 2 weeks after school gets out and then start to prep for next year. Last year I vacationed all summer and this year I am really looking forward to do some prep work to help me prepare for the upcoming school year. I know I'm not the only one that gets excited by the back to school sale ads, I just need a little breather from the end of the current school year first. Anyone else feel like the last few weeks of school go slowly, but then once they are gone it seems like it all flew by?

Common Core

So our district is implementing the Common Core State Standards next school year for Kindergarten and 1st grade. I was lucky enough to attend a training today all about the new standards and I have to say that I am super excited about them! It seems like the Common Core State Standards are really comprehensive and definitely will make sure that students are learning skills necessary to be successful in life. I was so excited that I came home and just spent the last hour creating a spreadsheet to keep track of student mastery of the standards. Since it's so important for all the students to learn each concept in the grade level it's taught, I thought that this would be a wonderful way to keep track of all the information. Any one who's already started implementing Common Core State Standards, how do you like them? Any tips for those of us who will be implementing them soon?

Addiction to blogs!

I have become addicted to teaching blogs thanks to Pinterest and decided to give it a shot at writing my own. Bear with me as I try to figure this all out! I am super excited to attempt this new endeavor and hopefully I will gain more ideas while I share some that I have used in my own classroom. Thanks!